Being singer is different than being an actor, where you call up sources from your own experience that you can apply to whatever Shakespeare drama you're in. But an actor is pretending to be somebody, a singer isn't. And that's the difference. Singers today have to sing songs where there's very little emotion involved. That and the fact that they have to sing hit records from years gone by doesn't leave a lot of room for any kind of intelligent creativity.

You were born with a snake in both of your fists while a hurricane was blowing.

I'll always thank the Lord when my working day is through, I get my sweet reward to be alone with you.

Some of the old folk singers used to phrase things in an interesting way, and then, I got my style from seeing a lot of outdoor-type poets, who would recite their poetry. When you don't have a guitar, you recite things differently, and there used to be quite a few poets in the jazz clubs, who would recite with a different type of attitude.

A poem is a naked person... Some people say that I am a poet.

The National Bank at profit sells road maps for the soul.

In harmony with cosmic sea, true love needs no company. It can cure the soul, it can make it whole, if dogs run free.